London Eye: March 2012

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Fair and the organisers had pulled out all the stops to create a reception foyer with the glitzy ambience of a five-star Dubai hotel. Ultimately, however, these events are judged not on the interior decor but on the volume of sales. By the end of the week many dealers were reporting buoyant business and a renewed confidence among buyers. What made this year's fair markedly different to past years was the greater number of Asian visitors, reflecting the fact that China has finally overtaken America as the world's largest market for art and antiques.

"Clients were in great form this year," said Weiss. "They want to buy." She also noted the new influx of Asian interest, proving that TEFAF's promotion of the fair within China had paid off in visitor numbers if not yet in sales. "The Chinese visitors didn't buy from us," said Weiss, "but they were here in some numbers and expressed great enthusiasm for the English ancestral pictures, which bodes well for the future."

The TEFAF Fair grew from a core group of Old Master dealers who, 25 years ago, hatched a plan to turn Maastricht into the premier annual destination for museum-quality pictures. Despite having since expanded to accommodate sections devoted to modern and contemporary art and modern design, the Maastricht fair still derives much of its strength and appeal from the Old Master paintings market. It was thus not surprising to hear that Johnny van Haeften, one of the original founders of the fair and the doyen of the London Old Master trade, had sold pictures "in double figures" during the first three days of the fair. Meanwhile, silver dealers Koopman Rare Art generated welcome media coverage thanks to the sale of an important early 18th century silver inkstand by Paul de Lamerie for $5 million. The provenance connecting it to the first British Prime Minister Robert Walpole lent it added luster.

Visitors were flocking around the stand of decorative arts dealer Sylvia Powell for whom the international fairs circuit now provides the backbone of her business (Powell and her son Mark do the BADA, LAPADA and Olympia fairs in London and the Chicago and Palm Beach fairs in the United States). Powell had sold a number of ceramic works by Picasso and Jean Cocteau when we visited, and a blue glass Cyclops sculpture by Salvador Dali at £9,000 ($14,390).

Asked why the market was so buoyant at retail level given the recession, he told us his clients were looking for "tangible assets as a long-term store of value." Those assets included a set of eight Hepplewhite period dining chairs, which Cato sold to a Belgian collector, and a pair of late 18th century Chinese hardwood tables, which went to a New York buyer.

Away from the fairs circuit, one of the most interesting pieces of news this month was the announcement that Mallett, the once illustrious firm of London furniture dealers, is back in profit, albeit only marginally. The firm, which recently moved to new premises in London's fashionable Mayfair district, returned a profit before tax of £0.5 million ($800,000), compared to a loss of £1.4 million in 2010. The profit, however, includes the proceeds of the sale of the lease on the firm's former premises in New Bond Street, London. Market analysts will be watching with interest to see whether Mallett's decision to withhold share dividends for the foreseeable future will deliver a much-needed upturn in business.

Finally, the next few weeks will see country-wide celebrations of HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Not surprisingly, this is already providing an opportunity to brand exhibitions with a vaguely patriotic theme, even if the exhibition content is only tenuously related to Her Majesty. The career of the late and much-admired British painter and printmaker John Piper (1903-1992) spanned a good deal of Elizabeth's reign. A new exhibition of Piper's rarely seen work for British churches goes on view at Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire from April 21 to June 10.

Piper's love of British churches will gain a new and somewhat poignant resonance in the light of the increasing incidences of thefts from churches over the past few years, driven mainly by the rise of scrap metal prices. Piper's work will recall happier times when Britain's ancient ecclesiastical heritage was treated with the love and respect it deserves.

London Eye: February 2012

Those words will cause already cautious provincial auctioneers in the UK to look with even greater scrutiny on the credit-worthiness of potential bidders at future sales of Asian art. Bloomberg recently reported that West London auctioneer Peter Bainbridge has still not been paid the £51.6 million bid by a Chinese buyer for a Qing vase at his sale in December 2010. He is reported to have made trips to China to try and resolve the matter, but to no avail.

Happily, no such problems surrounded one of the more interesting Asian-flavored items that turned up at Duke's saleroom in Dorchester a couple of weeks ago. This was an 18th century mantel clock in a case decorated with a lacquered bronze figure of a Chinese scholar and a small boy. It was certainly in the Chinese taste, or perhaps goût Chinois would be a more accurate way to describe it since the movement was French, signed on the enamel dial — Gudin — almost certainly indicating Paul Gudin (active 1729-1755), which is considered one of the most illustrious clockmakers of the reign of Louis XV.

Gudin's clock movements were frequently incorporated into elaborate cases by renowned craftsmen such as André-Charles Boulle and others. Examples are included in the royal collection at Windsor Castle, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Although a successful blend of the rococo and the then prevailing taste for chinoiserie, this particular clock was not in the best of health, being in generally poor condition and with a replaced movement. These factors clearly influenced the cautious estimate of £500-£1,000 and yet such was its potential that it quickly brought £54,000 ($85,572).

The Gudin clock was not the only interesting French object in the sale. An exquisite Napoleonic prisoner-of-war painted bone model of a guillotine had been consigned from a Dorset private collection and reaffirmed what has long been a truism of the art market — that objects of great quality and rarity can be relied upon to generate keen interest, even in times of recession. It seems hard to believe that this gruesome form of capital punishment remained the official means of dispatching miscreants in France as late as 1989, although the last time it was used was in 1977. On this occasion the social history background can only have helped intensify the competition for this delicate model, which saw the hammer fall at £4,000 ($6,340).

India and Indonesia, like China, are emerging markets whose thriving economies are hatching hundreds of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) every year. Many of these newly wealthy individuals nurture a desire to collect examples of their country's ancient cultural heritage. Whether this factor helped fuel demand for a 13th century Indonesian carved andesite figure of Ganesha that came under the hammer at Duke's sale is unclear, but certainly it triggered some determined bidding. The monumental elephantine deity went on to attract a winning bid of £8,000 ($12,675).

London is currently abuzz with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation as preparations intensify for this summer's Olympic Games. The anticipation is understandable as the event will usher in a capital-wide festival of cultural and sporting activities. The trepidation comes from a lingering doubt, frequently expressed by Londoners, as to whether the creaking transport network can accommodate such an influx of tourists.

Meanwhile, the spring art and antiques fairs are proceeding as usual, many of which are hoping to benefit from visitors arriving before the Olympic crush begins. The Chelsea Antiques Fair, which takes place March 21-25 at the Chelsea Town Hall, has been in operation since the 1950s and now claims to be "the world's longest running antiques fair." Quite how one might establish those credentials with any certainty is a moot point, but there is no doubting the fair's popularity with local collectors and visitors alike. The 35 exhibitors at this year's event are playing on the idea of a contemporary Grand Tour, hopping to attract intrepid intercontinental travelers with a nose for quality and rarity.

Typical of the kind of thing to be seen at this year's fair are a Continental Art Nouveau vase to be offered by London dealers Shapiro & Co.; a Liverpool creamware jug priced at £1,575 ($2,500) on the stand of Staffordshire-based pottery specialist Roger de Ville; a 19th century gilt bronze group of Apollo and Daphne priced at £750 ($1,190) with Oxfordshire dealers Antediluvian, and a rare 19th century gilt bronze figure of Napoleon astride his favorite horse Vizir, which is for sale with Palladium Fine Art of Kent priced at £28,000 ($44,385).

If Chelsea is the longest running fair, the coming weeks see the opening of two of Europe's most prestigious art and antiques fairs — the British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) Fair, held in a purpose-built pavilion in Duke of York Square in London's fashionable Chelsea district, March 21-27, and the European Fine Art Fair, the annual event organised by the European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) in the Dutch town of Maastricht March 16-26. The London BADA event is arguably the most conservative of the Spring fairs, showcasing the stock of 103 BADA members specialising in all the usual categories of furniture, ceramics, silver, jewelery and the decorative arts. The event will nevertheless offer an indication of the extent to which the market is bearing up against the inclement economic climate. London Eye will be present to test the temperature.

The TEFAF fair in Maastricht, meanwhile, is another rare opportunity to see many important works of art ultimately destined to take up permanent residence in the world's great museum collections. The range could not be broader, with everything from a BMW car decorated by Alexander Calder to masterpieces by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Henry Moore.

London Modern British dealer Offer Waterman will be showing an important small bronze Reclining Figure by Moore, one of two maquettes made in 1945 for a memorial figure in Hornton stone at Dartington Hall in Devon. "I wanted the figure to have a quiet stillness and a sense of permanence," Moore wrote. Those two qualities seem to have been successfully translated into the maquette to be shown at TEFAF where it will be priced at £450,000 ($713,450).

Another significant offering from the London trade is a newly discovered 16th century alabaster relief by the great German sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider, which will be on the stand of sculpture specialist Daniel Katz Ltd. Titled The Annunciation, and dating from 1515–1520, the work was intended for private devotion and is thought to be unique.

Also showing at Maastricht will be London furniture dealers Mallett who this month moved from their old premises in New Bond Street to take up residence in the period elegance of Ely House in Dover Street in Mayfair. The building is the former London palace of the Bishop of Ely and was built between 1772 and 1776. Whether this opulent new home will help Mallett's business improve remains to be seen. Skate's Art Market Research analysts recently reported that the firm has been "losing money consistently since 2008," which led to Swedish investor Peter Gyllenhammar taking a 23 percent stake in 2011.

Finally, if British Prime Minister David Cameron were in need of something to sweeten his public image, what could be better than a miniature version of his official London residence, 10 Downing Street, made entirely out of sugar cubes? This is the work of British sculptor Brendan Jamison whose sculptures in sugar have been attracting huge interest in recent months. His model of the prime minister's home is included in an exhibition of the best in British craft and design currently on display at 10, Downing Street.

London Eye: January 2012

It matters little whether you prefer the original French term or the English version, either way Droit de Suite, or the Artists' Re-Sale Rights levy, will become more than just a mouthful to the UK art trade in 2012.

In January 2006, Britain was brought into line with the majority of other European Union member states when UK art dealers were forced to pay a levy on the resale of works of art by living artists. This was intended to "harmonize" tax laws among EU member states. Instead it struck a discordant note among those lobbying to protect London's status as an important center of the international art trade.

In 2012 the levy will be extended to benefit artists' heirs for up to 70 years after an artist's death. Many dealers see this as likely to deliver yet another wounding blow to the secondary market in the UK. With China's art market accelerating rapidly, the development is seen as singularly unwelcome.

Quite what impact the levy extension will have on annual events such as the London Art Fair remains to be seen. This year's instalment of the fair took place at the Business Design Centre in Islington last week. Auction Central News visited on the final day to take the pulse of the market. Asked about the likely impact of the extended levy, one prominent London dealer told us, "No question but that this will have an effect. On January 1st, all the modern dealers had to put their prices up by 4 percent, and this, in a tough buyer’s market, is not a very bright idea. Collectors don’t understand it, so don’t want to pay it. Rich artists get richer, poor artists get little or nothing. It also has a negative effect all round, so perhaps no coincidence that secondary market sales at the London Art Fair did not appear to be strong."

It was clear from talking to other exhibitors that even without further bureaucratic impediments, the recession is biting. The organisers of the London Art Fair claim that the 25,000 people who visited this year represents the highest attendance figures in the fair's 24 years of operation. However, that didn't seem to translate into sales.

Gordon Samuel, a director of London dealers Osborne Samuel Ltd., who specialize in the top end of the Modern British market, said the fair had certainly been busy, with visitor numbers steady throughout the week, but that business had been slow. Nevertheless he was positive. "It's always a worthwhile fair for us because we do business with other members of trade," he said, "but with the public feeling the pinch one can't expect as much activity from private buyers as we've had before."

One sector of the market that seemed to be bearing up was that of affordable contemporary prints. Dealers such as Tag Fine Arts and Eyestorm, both of which offer low- or mid-priced limited editions, as well as original works in the category now generically termed Urban Art, seemed to have had a reasonably encouraging week. "We've seen a lot of sales across the board," said Angie Davey of Eyestorm, citing particular interest in prints and paintings by Danish artist Henrik Simonsen.

Hannah Shilland of Tag Fine Arts echoed that positive summary of the week's business. "We've sold quite a bit and seen a lot of interest from new customers," she said.

Over at the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea Park a couple of days later, mixed messages were again to be heard from the assembled trade. Most dealers acknowledged the fair seemed to be well-attended but admitted that business was markedly slower than on previous occasions. Some sales were happening, however. Auction Central News witnessed a good deal of interaction between stand-holders and private buyers and saw two or three transactions being closed during the hour we were at the fair.

Oxfordshire dealer James Holiday showed us a large circular mirror enclosed in an impressive carved walnut heraldic frame, which had found a buyer at £2,600 ($4,100). "I had my best year last year," he said, although he acknowledged that most of his business is with other members of the trade. "Some private buyers still have money and want to spend it," he added. "Unusual items of real quality always sell well, although it's getting more difficult to find really good things."

If quality and luxury are the criteria that dealers most need to seek out, it will be interesting to see what kind of reception awaits the Luxury Antiques Weekend scheduled to take place Feb. 24-26 at Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire. The Cotswolds is one of the wealthiest regions of the country and so this fair, set in the Tortworth Court Four Pillars Hotel — a stylish country house nestled in 30 acres of private landscaped grounds — seems to be ticking all the boxes required to weather the economic downturn.

Twenty-two dealers from across the country will assemble over the three days, showing a diverse selection of decorative antiques and works of art. Recent market intelligence indicates that fairs of this kind are becoming the principle commercial focus for the trade. Wealthy private individuals increasingly view up-market fairs as an opportunity to view a broad range of objects under one roof without the inconvenience of trekking from shop to shop in towns and villages. Typical of the kind of decorative and traditional objects that will be on offer at the Tortworth fair is a set of three Russian enamel beakers priced at £950 ($1,495) with Shapiro & Co., and a French Empire ormolu mantel clock surmounted by a bronze classical figure, on the stand of Richard Price Antique Clocks.

And so to one or two fine art events of interest taking place in and outside London in the coming weeks. One show likely to prove a magnet for admirers of the late Lucian Freud is an exhibition of fascinating photographs of Freud at work and at rest in his studio taken by photographer David Dawson, which will be on display at London dealers Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert's gallery at 38 Bury St. from Jan. 30 until March 2.

Lucian Freud: Studio Life features photographs taken by Dawson over a 12-year period and throughout the final years of Freud's life (the artist died in July 2011, aged 88). As well as now familiar images of Freud with his friend and fellow painter David Hockney (whose own Royal Academy show opens this week), the exhibition includes tender images of the artist with friends and sitters such as Kate Moss (although on this occasion she is not sitting but rather lying in bed, cuddling the great man himself).

Freud was known as an obsessively private person and so the exhibition throws a rare and revealing light on the more intimate aspects of his life and work. It coincides with an exhibition of Freud's portraits on view at the National Portrait Gallery from Feb. 9 until May 27.

Finally, a colorful, bright and breezy exhibition to dispel the wintry gloom that descends at this time of year. "Drawn to the Landscape" at the Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset from Feb. 18 to March 3 features new work by three British women artists — Carry Ackroyd, Emma Dunbar and Fiona Millais. All three artists share an optimistic view of English country life, making this an appropriate joint showing of their work. Carry Ackroyd's Kites wheeling over a patchwork landscape; Emma Dunbar's vivid still life, Allotment with beans; and Fiona Millais's Bullfinches pecking at berries on a tabletop together offer a clear indication of the exhibition's overarching rural theme. Millais happens to be the great-granddaughter of the pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, a small biographical detail that will doubtless help generate interest in a lively group show that seems well-timed to help usher in some brighter spring weather.

London Eye: December 2011

LONDON - Ever since Velasquez's compelling portrait of his Moorish servant and studio assistant Juan de Pareja set a new benchmark for post-war prices at Christie's in 1970, when it sold for £2.3 million, (the equivalent of around £27 million in today's money), the name Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velasquez has enjoyed a particular resonance in trade circles. Whenever polls are taken, the Spanish master is said to be consistently cited as the greatest painter by museum curators, dealers, critics and art historians.

Thus it was not surprising that all eyes were on Bonhams' Bond Street salerooms on Dec, 7 when a portrait of an unidentified gentleman came under the hammer with a firm attribution to Velasquez.

The painting arrived at Bonhams' Oxford saleroom in August 2010 among a consignment of works from the studio of the little-known 19th century British artist, Matthew Shepperson. Its quality was quickly recognised, however, and Bonhams' London experts were alerted. A combination of connoisseurial pondering, art historical research and technical analysis were finally sufficient to arrive at a firm attribution to Velasquez and it came under the hammer with an estimate of £2 million to £3 million.

A good deal was riding on the outcome. Would the market offer an economic endorsement of the picture's authenticity, or would it be treated with indifference? In the event Portrait of a Gentleman reached its estimate, selling for £2,953,250 ($4.5 million) including the buyer's premium. This might be deemed a satisfactory outcome given that its subject is still to be identified, but it may yet turn out to be a bargain if it is indeed an autograph work by Velasquez and its sitter can be identified. Might it reappear at the TEFAF fair in Maastricht in March with a different price tag?

Bonhams have had an excellent final quarter across a number of departments. Not only did they enjoy the top price of London's annual capital-wide Asian art event when £9,001,250 ($13.9 million) was offered on Nov. 10 for a Qianlong mark and period famille rose turquoise ground vase (which we reported in our last London Eye in November); they also secured the top price of the recent London sales of Russian art when a biblical subject by the Russian painter Vasilii Polenov (1844-1927) — He That is Without Sin, dated 1908—realized £4,073,250 ($6.3 million) on Nov. 30, more than double the upper estimate and a world record for the artist at auction. Neither Sotheby's nor Christie's could get even close to that figure at their equivalent offerings of Russian art.

Away from the salerooms, there are a number of interesting exhibitions on the immediate horizon.

Even the most casual glance at the self-portrait by the peripatetic British painter George Chinnery (1774-1852) will be enough to alert one to the idiosyncratic personality of the artist who is now the subject of a long-overdue exhibition on view at Asia House in London until Jan. 21. The pouting insouciance of the sitter gives little clue to the hard times he was to encounter when his luck eventually ran out while plying his trade around India and the China coast during the last 50 years of his life.

A student contemporary of Turner at the Royal Academy Schools, Chinnery's curiosity about the exotic Orient took him to Calcutta, Canton, Macau—and all points in between it would seem. Unlike many British artists infected with wanderlust at that time, Chinnery did not return home but stayed in Asia, consolidating his status as a well-traveled India-hand, executing portraits for wealthy European travelers and indigenous merchants. Eventually, however, the outgoings of his lavish lifestyle exceeded his income, forcing him to flee his creditors by dissolving into the ex-patriate community in Macau, Hong Kong and elsewhere. He died and was buried on the China coast.

The Asia House exhibition, titled "The Flamboyant Mr Chinnery (1774-1852): An English Artist in India and China," sponsored by HSBC Bank, is the first devoted to Chinnery's work since the Arts Council show of 1957.

Today, Palermo is arguably more familiar to most people not only as the capital of Sicily but as the birthplace of the Mafia. Happily this sinister aspect of Palermo's past is now being overshadowed by more positive historical discoveries. Dulwich Picture Gallery in South East London — Britain's oldest public gallery — has succeeded in reassembling a group of 16 paintings by the great Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), all of which were executed during the artist's size-month visit to Palermo between 1624 and 1625.

The most significant pictures painted during that brief sojourn include images of the city's patron saint, Rosalia, a Sicilian hermit of the Middle Ages. Shortly after van Dyck's arrival, Palermo was gripped by a plague which decimated the population. At around the same time, Rosalia's bones were discovered in a cave on Mount Pellegrino and soon after were carried in a procession through the city, at which point the pestilence is said to have miraculously ceased. Rosalia was promptly proclaimed Palermo's patron saint.

The Dulwich exhibition, curated by Dr. Xavier Salomon from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, briefly reunites the van Dyck canvases that are now dispersed in museums around the world. It includes typical van Dyck portraits of illustrious patrons such as Emanuele Filiberto, the Viceroy of Savoy, as well as a Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness and a striking airborne image of St. Rosalia interceding on behalf of the plague-stricken citizens of Palermo. The exhibition offers further confirmation, if any were needed, of the Dulwich Picture Gallery's renowned facility at stimulating interest in hitherto neglected aspects of Old Master painting.

Few of Van Dyck's Italian contemporaries could have foreseen the extraordinary direction Italian art would take in the 350 years after his visit to Sicily in the 1620s. Had van Dyck been invited to paint the procession of Saint Rosalia's bones, it is a fair bet it would have born no resemblance to the Procession of the Dead Christ painted in 1946 by the Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995). Burri's thickly impastoed expressionist composition is to be included in a new exhibition of the artist's works at the Estorick Collection in Islington, north London from Jan. 13 and continuing until April 8.

Burri is generally associated with the Arte Povera movement in postwar Italian art, which celebrated the use of impoverished materials. This exhibition illustrates Burri's influential contribution to the contemporary art of the 1960s and includes a number of works that reveal how even the humblest materials were lent surprising elegance in the hands of Burri and his contemporaries.

Finally, a brief foray into the distant wilds of the British provinces — or Ilkley in West Yorkshire to be precise. The Ilkley auctioneers, Hartleys, are among a number of north of England firms who occasionally turn up the unmistakably naive paintings by the Liverpool-born artist Brian Shields, or "Braaq" as he was nicknamed at school (a misspelling of George Braque, the Cubist painter whom he admired). Shields was also known as "The Lowry of Liverpool" on account of the L.S.Lowry-like stick figures that populate his industrial townscapes, and it was a typical example of this genre that turned up at Hartleys' sale on Dec. 7.

Painted in oils on board and titled Industrial Landscape at Twilight with Figures on a Frozen Lake (Fig. 12), it was knocked down to a private buyer in the room for a hammer price of £14,000 ($21,700), thereby demonstrating that paintings by the man described in The Times in 1977 as "one of the six most successful painters in England" continue, 35 years later, to enjoy a healthy commercial profile at auction.

London Eye: November 2011

London Eye: October 2011

If the atmosphere at last year's fair signalled a sense of relief that the art market was, however miraculously, weathering the global downturn, this year's fair seemed altogether more uncertain. Since its foundation nine years ago, Frieze has become notable for showing art that is way out on the ragged edge of experimentation. However, Landy's mad machine notwithstanding, the work on display this year seemed relatively safe and cautious, with many of the bigger dealers eschewing the challenging material and opting instead for safe art by familiar brand-name artists.

Most of the significant sales at Frieze take place in the first 24 hours and yet the fair's most expensive item — a €75 million ($103 million) super-yacht — was still seeking a buyer when we visited on Thursday. This is a collaboration between young German multimedia artist Christian Jankowski and the Italian luxury yacht manufacturers CRN. If you buy the boat as a boat, it will cost you €65 million ($89,4 million); if you pay an extra €10 million, Jankowski will bless your purchase with a certificate that magically turns the yacht into art. If your budget won't stretch that far, there is also a Riva power-boat on sale at €500,000 ($688,000) if bought as a boat, or €620,000 ($853,000) if anointed by Jankowski as a work of art.

Luca Boldini, CRN's marketing director, was on hand to reassure Auction Central News that the boat was no art world hoax. "This is very much in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp and the idea of the Readymade," he told us. "Christian is very serious about this work and I am very confident that we will sell it. If we do, it will send a great wave around the world that will confirm the value of the project."

Frieze Fair is now the London art world's most important annual event, its influence spreading across the city as buyers fly in from around the world to see work brought by 173 exhibitors from 33 countries. Frieze may hog the limelight, but the buzz it generates also helps other events elsewhere in the capital in October.

The Pavilion of Art and Design in Berkeley Square, now in its fifth year, offers an opportunity to see works by the classic American modernists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Motherwell, or by British masters like Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson that would look positively ancient compared with what is on show at Frieze.

By early November, the Frieze frenzy will have subsided, and the more considered atmosphere of "Asian Art in London" will commence, with many of the world's most important Asian art dealers and collectors flying in for the 10-day event from Nov. 3-12. Typical of the more promising shows in the Asian art calendar is an exhibition entitled "Ivory — Material of Desire" to be held at the Dover Street premises of London textile and works of art dealer Francesca Galloway.

Ivory is now widely recognised as one of the most controversial materials in the history of the decorative arts. In the late 19th and early 20th century, vast quantities were harvested from the Congo under the brutal regime of King Leopold II of the Belgians. Art nouveau ivory objects from that era deftly disguise the ghastly source of the raw material. Ivory has, of course, been a precious commodity since antiquity and Francesca Galloway's exhibition will include a carefully selected range of objects dating back to the 16th century, the material here predominantly originating from Asian elephants.

Among the most beautiful items on display is a 16th- or 17th-century Ceylonese ivory openwork jewel casket fitted with a multitude of interior drawers veneered in tortoiseshell and ivory with silver mounts and handles and enclosed by a pair of doors. This is the sort of thing that would not have been out of place in a Spanish or Portuguese princely collection and it will be a rare treat to see it at close quarters.

Also included is an 18th-century howdah from Murchidabad decorated with Mughal openwork ivory over mica, a technique designed to make the seat shimmer in the sunlight, thereby adding to the sense of luxury.

Francesca Galloway's exhibition runs Nov. 3 to Dec. 9.

Although it may seem somewhat rarefied and specialist when compared with the often crude impact of much of the contemporary art on display at Frieze, Asian Art London offers some astonishing visual delights for those prepared to keep their eyes and minds open. One of the most extraordinary objects going on display in November is an 11-headed Tibetan bronze Avalokitesvara figure inset with precious stones and dating from around 1400. This 4-foot 3 1/4-inch masterpiece will be the prize of London dealers Rossi and Rossi's "Asian Art in London" exhibition at their gallery at 16 Clifford St. from Nov. 3 to 12. The exhibition focuses on a private European collection of ritual objects formed over two decades from the late 1970s and includes several works exhibited at the Guimet Museum in Paris and published in their landmark catalog, Rituels Tibétains: ‘Visions Secrètes du V Dalai Lama.’

Also timed to coincide with the "Asian Art in London" event is the launch of an important new publication devoted to Chinese export porcelain — The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics: A Collector’s Vision by Maria Antónia Pinto de Matos, director of the National Tile Museum in Lisbon.

The three-volume text celebrates the collection of Brazilian entrepreneur Renato de Albuquerque and is published by London-based Chinese export porcelain dealer Jorge Welsh of Kensington Church Street.

Welsh and his business partner Luísa Vinhaís will be launching the book on Saturday, Nov. 5, at their gallery at 116 Kensington Church St. when the author will give a lecture at 5 p.m. and will sign copies of the book.

A selection of works from the Albuquerque Collection will be on display at the gallery, including an extraordinary Qing dynasty Qianlong period crab tureen and stand and two Qing dynasty Kangxi period vases decorated in underglaze blue and copper red. The launch will coincide with an exhibition at the gallery entitled "A Celebration of Chinese Export Porcelain," which will provide yet another reason for the world's most passionate collectors and dealers in Asian art to make the trip to London in November.

London Eye: September 2011

Strolling around the 20/21 British Art Fair at the Royal College of Art this week, the world seemed an infinitely more optimistic place than the newscasters would have us believe. First of all, it was a hive of activity. More importantly, people were actually buying and there were red dots aplenty as evidence of that. The fair's organizer, Gay Hutson, told Auction Central News that even with three days of the fair still to run, the signs were positive — "Lots of people have done good business with prices right up to the £75,000 level." She confirmed that London dealer Julian Hartnoll had sold oils by Kitchen Sink painter John Bratby, Agnews had sold two John Tunnard paintings, and Beaux Arts had found a buyer for an Elisabeth Frink bronze. Rowntree Clark of Bury Street had sold Conquer, an important St. Ives landscape by Joe Tilson (born 1928) for "around £75,000" (Fig. 1).

The organizers of the various London art and antiques fairs scheduled to take place over the coming weeks must be hoping that this positive trend will continue. The next important test of the market's health will be the London and Provincial Antique Dealers' Fair (The LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair), which opens in Berkeley Square Wednesday, Sept. 21 (until the 25th).

Already one of the most talked-about objects to be seen at this year's fair is a late 18th-century miniature ivory ship picture of a three-masted frigate under sail upon a blue-stained ivory sea, complete with men on board amid the rigging. This will be offered by London dealers Finch & Co., while Ted Few has a rare late 18th-century French pocket-sized "Loto Dauphin" in tortoiseshell, ivory, gold leaf and lacquer. This circular lotto-style game was invented during the reign of Louis XVI for his son, the dauphin. Ted Few's example is in pristine condition and is provenanced to the estate of the Spencer family at Althorp — a Princess Diana connection that will surely only bolster its appeal.

The LAPADA marquee in Berkeley Square provides a superb location for a range of dealers to set up smart stands right in the middle of town,

No sooner will the LAPADA marquee have been packed away when the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair will open its doors in Battersea Park on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

It is not only the traditional art and antiques dealers who like to pitch their tents in the capital in September and October. Next week also sees the opening of "Tribal Perspectives," a multicultural event centred on rare art and artefacts from what the organizers describe as "rapidly diminishing cultures." Cynics might assume, given the dire economic prognostications, that they are referring to the major European democracies, many of which seem to be in danger of total collapse. However, it is objects from the so-called "tribal" cultures of Africa, North America and Oceania that provide the focus here. Many well-known dealers in ethnographic material will be showing at the event, which takes place at the neighboring galleries of 27-28 Cork St., London W1 from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.

Highlights include a Cameroonian chief's glass bead hat from the Bemileke tribe, dating from the mid-1900s,

Anyone who has ever visited a major exhibition of works by the great Dutch painter Vermeer will know that they are best viewed not in the heaving scrum of a major blockbuster show but in the paintings' home museums where they can usually be viewed on quieter, more intimate terms. Hopefully the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has made appropriate preparations for what are likely to be blockbuster visitor numbers when they open their exhibition "Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence" on Oct. 5.

The show, curated by Dr. Marjorie Wieseman, head of Dutch paintings at the National Gallery in London, features 28 works by Vermeer and his contemporaries from the so-called Golden Age of Dutch painting. It is a safe bet that visitors will be jostling shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other fellow admirers of this perennially popular genre of painting, particularly as the exhibition includes a good selection of iconic works by Vermeer including The Lacemaker,

One of the most notable trends in collecting in recent years has been the growing popularity of blending modern and contemporary works of art with more ancient objects. Thus where there was a time when one was expected to be either a collector of Old Master drawings or a collector of modern art (but not both), today the juxtaposition of periods is increasingly seen as fashionable and creative. 'The Spanish Line' — the forthcoming exhibition of Spanish drawings to be held at the Courtauld Institute of Art from Oct. 13 to Jan. 15 looks likely to suggest interesting art historical continuities and comparisons between, for example, on the one hand drawings by 17th-century Spanish masters such Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652)

The Courtauld has enjoyed enormous success of late with its Toulouse Lautrec exhibition; this show seems likely to sustain that positive trend until the end of the year.

It may be all doom and gloom in the world of high finance, but the art world is still buzzing with vitality.

London Eye: August 2011

As one London broadsheet dryly noted this week, the art trade was mercifully spared the attentions of looters during the recent riots as rampaging youths targeted box-fresh trainers and flat-screen televisions rather than Old Master paintings or Chinese porcelain.

Most of the London art trade would have been relaxing in warmer climes during the civil unrest and, unlike the politicians, had no reason to abandon their sunbeds to return home. Instead, as they poured the Chianti many dealers will doubtless have reflected on the extent to which Sotheby's six-month trading figures reveal them to be making ever deeper incursions into non-auction-based private treaty sales — traditionally the stronghold of the trade.

Sotheby's private transactions more than doubled to $448 million during the first six months of 2011 compared with the equivalent period in 2010. As Skate's Art Market Research noted, this upswing, together with exotic mechanisms such as guaranteed bids, served to reduce transaction expenses for Sotheby's clients.

Christie's may have benefited from similar strategies, although as a privately owned company they do not publish trading figures. They did, however, announce the departure of Ed Dolman, their chairman for the past ten years, who has sailed off to become director of the Qatar Museums Authority.

Meanwhile, as Auction Central News reported last week, the other significant development in the UK's provincial auction scene this month was the acquisition of Bloomsbury Auctions by the Fine Art Auction Group (FAAG), making the group the fourth largest auction firm in the UK after Sotheby's Christie's and Bonhams.

August is always the quietest month in the London trade, so we're already looking forward to September when the autumn season starts to gather pace. One or two September events already slated include an exhibition of work by John Burningham, one of the UK's most celebrated illustrators, at the Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1 from 13 September until 22 December.

Burningham first established himself by producing poster designs for London Transport in the early 1960s. He went on to illustrate a number of children's books, including the award-winning Borka: the Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers, which won the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration in 1963. That success led to the commission to illustrate Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the only children's book written by Ian Fleming author of the James Bond novels. Fleming was also the grandson of Robert Fleming, founder of Flemings Bank, whose corporate collection provided the foundation for the Fleming Collection. The exhibition of Burningham's work will include the model he made of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, which he suspended from his studio ceiling while making the illustrations for the novel. A book of Burningham's work — John Burningham: An Illustrated Journey — is being published to coincide with the show.

The danger of entering the habitat of nature's more unpredictable wildlife was made tragically clear earlier this month when a young British explorer was killed by a polar bear on the Norwegian Arctic island of Svalbard. However it is not only explorers who take such risks. The British artists Olly and Suzy have built a career on getting up close and personal with bears, sharks and other dangerous animals. A similar aesthetic impulse drives sculptor Mark Correth and the painter Andrew Stock, whose images of various kinds of exotic wildlife and their habitats go on show at the Jerram Gallery in Sherborne, Dorset in September.

Mark Correth often likes to position himself just feet from the tigers and other big cats he is sculpting, which lends his work a certain energy and immediacy. One hopes collectors appreciate the risks he is taking. Andrew Stock, meanwhile, focuses on the more contemplative aspects of the natural environment, such as early morning sunrise over a coastal scene. The Jerram Gallery joint exhibition reveals the complementary aspects of Correth and Stock's respective projects and continues from 10 September to 1 October.

A few months ago we saw one or two Modern British works from the private collection of Roxy Music frontman Brian Ferry on show in a loan exhibition at the the Olympia Fair. Around the same time we glimpsed Rolling Stone Mick Jagger looking perfectly at home rubbing shoulders with standholders at the classy Masterpiece Fair. Now further evidence of the sophisticated art tastes of veteran rock stars comes with the news that David Bowie has loaned a work by Modern British master William Nicholson (1872-1949) to a major exhibition of Nicholson's landscapes and still lifes at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert in Bury Street, London SW1 from 5 October to 4 November.

Bowie has loaned a fine landscape, Andalucian Homestead, to the exhibition, which looks set to re-emphasize Nicholson's already established status as one of the most subtle and technically accomplished of British modernists. Still life compositions such as Rose Lustre and The Silver Casket and Red Leather Box , both of 1920, have a Chardin-like quality unmatched in modern painting, while the small oil on board Snow in the Horseshoe of 1927 reveal him to be equally sensitive to the effects of seasonal weather on the landscape.

On the publishing front, National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne has joined hordes of other art world figures by penning a book on art crime. Nairne was a director of the Tate at the time the gallery's two J.M.W.Turner paintings were stolen from Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle in 1994. The paintings — Shade and Darkness: The Evening of the Deluge and Light and Colour: The Morning after the Deluge — were recovered in 2002, although not without controversy after the Tate entered complex negotiations with legal intermediaries who had access to those holding the paintings. Nairne has been doing the rounds of the radio stations to promote his book — Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners — and to press home the assertion that the Tate did not pay a ransom for the return of the pictures.

Finally, the Courtauld Gallery has been notching up record visitor figures for its current exhibition 'Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge', with some 60,000 people visiting the show since it opened on 16 June. The exhibition, which continues until 18 September, charts the relationship between the diminutive French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the exotic cabaret dancer, Jane Avril, who became the painter's close friend and muse.

Most of us are familiar with the posters and other graphic ephemera of the period, but rarely has there been an opportunity to glimpse something of the real social relations between two of the most iconic figures of the Parisian demi-monde of the 1890s. Lautrec's short stature, and Avril's nervous twitch set them apart as eccentrics but also drew them together as trusted confidantes, if not lovers. Described as "one of the best small exhibitions of the year", the Courtauld show attracted almost 4,000 visitors on one day alone in early August, testifying to the public's enduring fascination with the Bohemian world of fin-de-siècle Paris.

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London Eye: July 2011

Thus, as politicians snort with moral outrage at the News International phone-hacking scandal, the British public seems more concerned to leave it all behind and head off to warmer climes. No poster campaign could persuade them to stay.

The importance of powerful graphic design in promoting travel, tourism and the edifying benefits of the countryside can be seen in the work of the American-born artist and designer Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) whose poster designs are the subject of a new exhibition slated for the Estorick Collection in Islington, north London in September.

Dubbed ''The Poster King' by the British Vorticist painter Wyndham Lewis, Montana-born McKnight Kauffer was responsible for some of the boldest and most memorable poster designs of the inter-war period. After arriving in the UK in 1914, he struggled for a time to find work, but in 1915 his designs were spotted by Frank Pick, publicity manager for London Underground  (and famous in his own right as the designer of the first colour-coded London tube map). From that moment, the underground's walls became a gallery for McKnight Kauffer's stylish posters, promoting everything from newspapers to air travel, automobile fuel to the bucolic pleasures of the countryside around Watford, of all places.

"Edward McKinght Kauffer: Poster King" is at the Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, Islington from Sept. 14 Dec. 18.

Today, persuasive posters are among a battery of tools used to persuade a recession-hampered public to find cultural replenishment in museums and country houses. Another is cutting-edge contemporary art. This summer many cultural destinations are looking to adventurous artists—and particularly sculptors—to attract more visitors.

You might think that dead insects would be the last thing cultural tourists would wish to encounter when visiting a National Trust property, but not if the insects are of the meticulously choreographed sort that has become a speciality of the British artist Tessa Farmer.

Farmer takes dead flies, ants, bees, moths and myriad other insects and fashions them into weird anthropomorphic scenarios, miniature worlds that are strangely enchanting and compelling. Her work is currently on display at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, but now the National Trust has invited Farmer to contribute to an event entitled "Enchanted Garden, Flower Fairies and Dark Tales" at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire until Oct. 2. Her work represents a genuinely original contribution to that quintessentially English preoccupation with fairies and imaginary worlds at the bottom of the garden.

Meanwhile, sculpture of an altogether different sort will be luring Londoners westward at the end of this coming week when the acclaimed British figurative artist Sean Henry installs a number of his realistically painted bronze figures into Salisbury Cathedral in a display entitled "Conflux: A Union of the Sacred and the Anonymous".

Henry has been fascinated by polychrome sculpture ever since he toured the great cathedrals of Europe as an art student. His innovative contemporary take on that long and noble tradition continues to win him admirers and his work is now included in countless public and private collections around the world. The exhibition at Salisbury will encourage us to look with fresh eyes at the existing objects in the cathedral and to enjoy a dialogue between the sacred ancient sculptures and Henry's secular modern works. The show also provides an excellent reason for holidaymakers heading for Cornish beaches to break the long journey from the north or from London to the deepest southwest.

A further reminder, if any were needed, of the increased recognition of sculptors within the broader British arts horizon came this week when the American-born, Cambridge-based sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld was awarded an honorary OBE. The award was not only in recognition of her sculpture, which continues to attract critical plaudits internationally, but also for her tireless championing of "proper" sculpture—that is to say, work made by artists with their own hands.

Jeremy Hunt, MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, congratulated Blumenfeld on her award, acknowledging her "remarkable contribution to the arts as one of the boldest and most diverse artists working today." Blumenfeld is one of the few women to receive the prestigious award, adding her name to a list of illustrious past recipients that includes film star Pierce Brosnan, writer Bill Bryson, Michelin star TV chef Raymond Blanc, and actress Janet Suzman.

An early notice of another exhibition worthy of a visit in the coming months is the first solo show of paintings by the talented young British artist Camilla Jackson at the Gallery in Cork Street in central London. Jackson is currently domicile on a houseboat moored under the Power Station at Battersea Pier on the River Thames. The river location informs some of her recent canvases, which depict London views seen through porthole windows, while a series of huge canvases focusing on rural subjects were influenced by the six years she spent living in the Cotswolds. "Camilla Jackson: Recent Paintings" will be at at The Gallery in Cork Street from Oct. 24-29, with prices ranging from £500 to £3,000 ($800 to $4,800).

Still on in London's fashionable Chelsea district is the Summer Exhibition staged by Cricket Fine Art, run by Leslie Pratt. Leslie's summer selection includes a broad range of affordable painting and sculpture, including striking still lifes by Chloe Lamb, small intimate bronzes by Annie Field and a selection of inventive classically-inspired canvases by American-born Tuscany-based painter Janet Stayton.

Finally, it is a fair bet that anyone fortunate enough to be sitting on an original manuscript by Jane Austen will be booking a taxi to London to have it assessed by a London auction house. A couple of days ago, a manuscript for Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons of 1804, sold at Sotheby's for £993,000 ($1.6 million) including premium. Richard Ovenden of the Bodelian Library ion Oxford, which bought the manuscript, said, "We are glad it will stay now in Britain," adding that the "priceless manuscript" will be on public view by the autumn.

London Eye: June 2011

"The name's Bond. James Bond." It's one of the most memorable lines in film history, and this week Christie's tapped into the enduring public fascination with Fleming's dashing spy by offering a selection of classic posters and original artwork associated with the Bond movies at their vintage poster auction in South Kensington.

While everyone has their favourite Bond film, many art lovers — and particularly aficionados of art crime — reserve a special fondness for Dr. No in which Bond pauses on the stairs of the villain's mountain hideaway and glares at Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington, resting on an easel nearby. The original painting had been stolen from the National Gallery in London earlier in 1962, the year the film was made. This witty reference to a real-life art crime not only added a frisson of topicality to Terence Young's film, it also unwittingly cemented the myth that behind every art theft is an evil "Dr. No" collector.

Such popular cultural background is just one of the many elements that keeps Bond memorabilia so collectible, but it is original artwork that really gets pulses racing.

Thus the star of the sale in commercial terms was the original concept artwork by Robert E. McGinnis for the poster campaign for Diamonds Are Forever of 1971 starring Sean Connery, surely the greatest Bond of all. Executed in gouache and mixed media on board and signed by McGinnis, this masterpiece of dynamic commercial design was estimated at £18,000-£24,000 ($29,214-$38,952) but went on to fetch £79,250 ($129,970).

Turning from the masters of popular culture to the cultured business of Old Master paintings, London dealers continue to assert their connoisseurial prestige at the top of the market. This week it was announced that the London-based historical portrait specialist Philip Mould has discovered a lost portrait of a young woman by Sir Anthony Van Dyck dating from 1630-34. The picture's illustrious provenance included a period in the ownership of the diplomat Talleyrand and, afterwards, Emmerich Joseph, a prominent 19th-century collector. Later it entered the collection of the Rothschilds, only to be looted by the Nazis. Restituted in 1946, it subsequently disappeared into relative obscurity before surfacing in 2010 in a Christie's catalog of a Parisian house sale of the Rothschild family where it was described simply as Flemish School.

Philip Mould and his associate paid 1,017,000 euro to secure it — 50 times its upper estimate — after which it was given a thorough cleaning, which revealed a wealth of previously obscured details. Mould believes these factors have contributed to tripling the painting's current market value. Certainly it reveals how Van Dyck captured his precocious young model in a moment of penetrating skepticism as if unimpressed by the whole business of having her portrait painted.

Another London dealer busy rediscovering lost works is the watercolor specialist Guy Peppiatt. His recent summer exhibition of 18th- and 19th-century drawings and watercolors included two recently rediscovered Samuel Palmer watercolors dating from 1861, a marvelously action-packed and previously unknown early Thomas Rowlandson drawing of an escaping highwayman, and a pen, brown ink and colored wash drawing of a Wooded Landscape with a Country Cart and Faggot Gatherers by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788).

Peppiatt is currently showing these at the Art Antiques London fair alongside other works, including a marvelous Francis Nicholson watercolor of Kirkstall Abbey near Leeds, and a fine view by Edward Lear (1812-1888) of Sartene, Corsica, in pen and brown ink and watercolor over pencil.

London is not the only place to find good quality 19th-century pictures this month. The Harrogate Pavilions Antiques Fair starts June 17 in the popular Yorkshire spa town and among the more desirable works on offer will be a delightful View of York from the castle walls, signed and dated 1829 by William Frederick Wells (1762-1836), a founding member of the Old Watercolour Society. The picture will be offered by Derek Newman Fine Art of Gloucestershire, who will be taking a broad selection of 18th- and 19th-century watercolors to the Harrogate fair.

Outdoor sculpture displays have become a familiar part of the summer season in the UK and this year is no different. From June 19 until July 10, the picturesque five-acre gardens at Quenington Old Rectory in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, will host the 10th Quenington Fresh Air Sculpture Exhibition featuring around 200 works by 100 sculptors in a price range from £100 to £35,000. The success of these ventures depends chiefly on the eye of their curators and Quenington's organizers seems to have managed an encouraging consistency in that respect, selecting carefully and avoiding the kind of kitsch objects that so many sculpture parks seem to attract.

This year's show includes the inventive use of textiles, a number of works in glass, sculpted flowers and some witty interactions with the Old Rectory's indigenous ruined buildings such as Michael Branthwaite's site-specific Vernacular Intervention which comprises a big red chain link slotted through the door and window of an old abandoned stone building. Marigold Hodgkinson, meanwhile, famous for her water-bound sculptures, has placed one of her reflective works in the Quenington Rectory pond. Let's hope the sun shines to show it off to its best effect.

Finally, a quick preview of London's Master Paintings Week which runs July 1-8. This year's event features one or two new participants, including two Italian dealerships. Among the works on display with Riccardo Bacarelli and Bruno Botticelli, who will set up shop on the fifth floor of 21 Bruton St., will be a striking Portrait of Giovanni di Piero Bini, shown with a small dog on his arm.

Meanwhile, Emanuele and Leonardo Piacenti were so impressed by their last visit to London in March this year that they decided to relocate their business to 8 Duke St., St James's. A highlight of their Master Paintings Week exhibition will be an interesting oil on canvas depicting The Judgment of Paris by the 17th-century Italian painter Alessandro Rosi (1628-1669). The work departs from the standard Judgment format of three graceful nudes to focus on Paris clutching the golden Apple of Discord.

Happily, London's Master Paintings Week is always a model of concord rather than discord.